For $1 a day, disability levy has far-reaching benefits for all

People just don't get it. The reason we pay taxes is not to keep Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott in a job but to provide ourselves with the services for which we cannot individually afford to pay (''Labor locks in a new levy'', May 1). Education, health and welfare are major consumers of money. If we wish to educate and care for ourselves we must be prepared to pay the cost. How many of us could pay for the education and health costs we might need earning the average income?

It is high time we all thought about how Gillard is trying to help every Australian have a good education, health and welfare and stopped listening to the nonsense peddled by Abbott and Joe Hockey. The choice is simple. Gillard offering services to which we all contribute or Abbott cutting services so they are accessible only to those with deep pockets.

Augusta Monro Dural

A levy is a tax. Julia Gillard said she would not increase tax. She intends breaking her word, yet again. The school funding and disability scheme is a budgetary consideration. It is something you make allowance for within the budget, if you think it is justifiable. Gillard shouldn't pretend these expenditures somehow give justification for the failure to administer the budget with an iota of competence.

For individuals and families reaping these concessions, aspiration has become entitlement. For certain industry sectors and global reach firms, preferential treatment has become the norm. The case for removing or modifying many of these concessions was made in the Henry tax review. The perceived electoral backlash from self-interested households and companies has ensured little action has occurred.

Federal Labor appears to desperately need some magic to make the September 14 election a close contest. It could do much worse than, in the name of expanding wellbeing through reducing inequality, taking on some of these glaring tax reform priorities.

Gary Moore Leichhardt

So the national disability insurance scheme requires a levy that roughly works out to be a $1 a day - in others words, giving up a couple of cappuccinos per week. I think I can do that.

An added benefit might be that I'll sleep better.

Anthony Inatey Bathurst

Politicians in a flap over revenues and shortfalls and surpluses could do worse than to examine the lessons of history.

In the US in 1980 when taxes on the wealthy were 70 per cent, $35 billion of income was declared, of which $19 billion was collected in tax. After the Reagan tax cuts in 1988 when taxes on that same bracket were 27 per cent, an astonishing $99 billion was collected, five times the revenue with the rate a fraction of what it was.

And a similar effect was observed in Russia after its 13 per cent flat tax was implemented. It's simple; treat businesses and high-income earners fairly, eschew class warfare, take on a pro-growth, pro-business outlook and earners are far more inclined to declare revenue and co-operate with the Tax Office.

Peter Costello says the nation ''can't afford'' the 0.5 per cent additional Medicare levy for the NDIS. Really, Mr Costello? Our daughter turns 19 today and we've been hearing that argument for the whole of her life. Meanwhile we feed her, toilet her, dress her, try to understand her and deal with her regular tantrums and seizures.

Oh, and we pay taxes, too. The NDIS is not an ''optional luxury''; it's a question of human rights.

Lynda Slade Oyster Bay

May Day! May Day! Bring back Peter Costello

David Vaughan Willoughby

Thanks to the previous Coalition government, my super pension is tax free. Therefore I do not pay the Medicare levy and would not be contributing to the NDIS. This is not right.

When Peter Costello made our pension tax free he should have at least ensured we paid the Medicare levy. This oversight should be rectified now.

As a former Labor voter I ask you, Julia Gillard, to look closely at this tiny child. Look at his face. See the uncertainty and the fear.

Are you really going to lock this tiny boy up for years and steal his childhood? Are you going to teach him that he is powerless and life is hopeless? Are you going to teach him to be more afraid than he already is and trust no one?

Australia should keep him safe and give him hope so that he can give back to his new country and enrich it. Let him see his parents working hard, being happy and successful. Let our country benefit from their hard work as it has from more than two centuries of immigrants. Politicians have to accept the inevitable change in the world. People seeking to flee war, famine, poverty and tragedy are part of that. Work with that change and use it to improve our country for the long term. Punishment and cruelty have no place! You are making it worse.

Have some humanity and compassion for your fellow human beings.

Robina Sinclair Green Point

Labor progressing, Liberals regressing

Will those doubters of the Gillard government's reformist agenda please wake up to themselves and take a good hard look at what the Tony Abbott-led Coalition has on offer just months out from the September 14 federal election. I see no visionary policies to move Australia forward from Mr Abbott and his senior colleagues, only a constant barrage of criticism and promises of repealing the carbon and mining taxes.

That's why federal Labor is regarded as the progressive party of the 21st century and the Liberal-National parties are still in a 1950s retrogressive time-warp.

Eric Palm Canada Bay

''Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned'' (William Congreve) - Julia Gillard could disappear to the UN and we'll be left in this mess.

Mary Julian Woollahra

Little joy from Singo

There could scarcely be a starker juxtaposition than Yatra Sherwood's cri de couer (Letters, May 1) for the genuinely needy in our society and your editorial (''More Joyous inquiry must be rigorous and transparent'', May 1) of John Singleton - too crass to keep vulgar excess private - erupting over being unable to place a $100,000 bet in a sport that, like other sports now similarly afflicted by gambling, has a credibility gap of Grand Canyon dimensions.

Ron Sinclair Bathurst

We may have no choice if Abbott gets his way

When Tony Abbott became the Opposition Leader he gave us a rock solid guarantee that John Howard's Work Choices was ''dead, buried and cremated'' but now we see that penalty rates are once again under threat from the coalition and big business (''Mixed messages on penalty rates'', May 1).

I daresay that if Mr Abbott does become our prime minister the first miracle we will witness on his ascension will be the uncremating, the unburying and the undeading of Work Choices.

Pampered professors

In the cloistered, cosseted world of university life comes a list of pampered dons and their ilk pleading for changes to the policies of funding their bountiful lives (''An open letter to the PM from Australian Professors and Associate Professors'', May 1). Get out in the real world, profs, and see how tough it is for battlers.

Alastair Browne Cromer Heights

Raising rates isn't the answer to inefficiency

Ross Gittins (''Another day poorer, deeper in debt'', May 1) and Graham Sansom (''Councils have to lift their game - and their sights'', May 1) address two related problems to which there is a common solution: the raising of local government rates. This would not only balance councils' budgets but also increase fiscal efficiency, and at the same time encourage supply of unused or underused housing thus leading to lower rents payable by those suffering financial stress.

David Smiley Wollstonecraft

The NSW state government has a sad history of failing to hold local councils to account for serious mismanagement and wronging. Local government cannot hope to improve if the same old, lazy, NSW bureaucracies continue the practice of allowing councils to flout these new proposed rules, guidelines, and laws. Local residents need robust accountability and oversight, not a whole set of new rules to be ignored.

Ailie Bruins Hornsby

Shark's dressing down

A prominent rugby league player attending an official hearing dressed as a yob would suggest to most Australians that all was still well with the world and that civilisation as we know it was not about to end (''Sorry sight: Graham's apology over casual dress'', May 1). So why the fuss?

John Lewis Port Macquarie

Not music to their ears

Much as I enjoy Sydney Symphony's concerts and support its continued funding, I find it hard to reconcile its claimed 2012 profit of $425,613 with the fact that it received $13.5 million in government grants (''Sour note as orchestra's profit falls,'' May 1).

Norm Neill Darlinghurst

Civil unions would be the way forward - for all

Now that Australia's Islamic community has questioned the right of non-believers to cast a vote on the ''religious institution'' of marriage, is it possible for us to debate the real question - why does marriage have any legal status at all (''Muslims support gay marriage poll'', May 1)?

Marriage is a faith-based union that pre-dates Australia and its Parliament. The only institution that should be recognised before the law is a civil union. All Australians, of legal age, should be able to join together in this union irrespective of gender or faith.

If having done so they wish to ratify this ceremony in the eyes of their god, or gods, they may do so by marrying in a mosque, temple, church or synagogue. This additional service should carry no further benefit in the eyes of our secular state. As a confirmed bachelor, I won't be availing myself of either option and, euphemisms aside, no one is likely to suggest that I'm homophobic.

Scott Brandon Smith Bowral

Pepita Maiden (Letters, May 1), I love my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren but I do not want to marry them. Does that not demonstrate the difference between love and marriage and why gay marriage can never be the same?

Kevin Orr Blakehurst

Could someone please tell me why young heterosexuals are eschewing marriage and young homosexuals are clamouring for it?

Gabrielle Bluett Cremorne

It's sad to see heritage being given the boot

Waverley Council should be publicly shamed for allowing the landmark boot factory in Bondi Junction to fall into such disrepair. Surely the role of local councils is to protect heritage-listed buildings like the boot factory, not abandon them to history's rubbish heap.

John de Bres Rose Bay

There has been warning

Didn't he write from his hospital bed that it was for the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? And didn't the bombers in Britain say exactly the same thing after the bombing in the London underground station? Clearly none so deaf as those who do not want to hear.

Jan Carroll Potts Point

There's no sign of an end to all this befuddlement

I would be interested to hear how Ralph Tabor (Heckler, April 29) deals with the sign ''form two lanes''. I've never been able to do it myself.

Ian Walters Circular Quay

While appreciating ''Falling rocks do not stop'' (Letters, May 1), I am torn between ''Cyclists use left shoulder'' and ''Warning! Touching overhead wires causes instant death! Penalty $200.''

Michael Cahill Summer Hill

My children, in their early years, always used to look at me with puzzlement when I dropped to a sitting position on the footpath when we came up to a ''No Standing'' sign.

Kevin Farrell Beelbangera

Right royal hint

Perhaps Prince Charles should strategically place that photo of Queen Beatrix on his mum's breakfast table (''With a stroke, a queen ends her reign'', May 1).

Mustafa Erem Terrigal

Hanging up

Who gave the companies behind subcontinental cold callers offering low home phone rates permission to quote what I am currently paying? Is that information readily available or does my telco release it willy-nilly?

Either way, what I pay is my business. If I want to pay less, I will either call less or switch of my own volition.